Actually Nicholas, Im of the exact same belief. No body gives a fuck where abouts the boot your people came from, as long as you were a crook as well.

Nothing for nothing, but though I also had thought Crea's family hailed from Piedmont, certain guys swear black and blue he was Calabrese. Another one though is Daniel Leo, who's family I thought came from a commune in La Marcha. There's a number of other guys that came from Tuscany, Bari, Puglia, etc, etc.

I can almost guarantee some body will disagree and claim that it wasonly Sicilian, Calabrian and Napolitan guys that had some sort of inborn "mafia gene" that precluded other Italians from being criminals.

I hear ya man, who the hells cares what Italian province this guys grandparents were born in; the question is, is this guy a legitimate tough guy and does he have the potential to flip?

Maybe this isnt directly related to this topic.. What i always wondered is that where the loyalty is with made guys, i mean for an example. Take a look at the Colombo wars, you have the Orena and Persico loyalists. They killed eachother, and avenged each other for what? Sure they are loyal to Orena and Persico, but a person does not blindly follow a person only for money or greed. What other thing forces them to make these kind of choices? They could easily say: "oh well, a top soldier of our side has been shot. Fuck him, i wont risk my neck for this". But no, you hear and see the opposite. They go and avenge the death of a close friend, a partner, a boss.

i think its based on what the reward will be. think about it if one faction wins they take over the other and all of their rackets and the loser faction will have its capo's removed and replaced by the winning faction(probably).

don't think so.most of them are under indictment inactive and ip.

Not aimed at you, Ivan..but this really irks me when I hear this. Guys in Italy do not go around saying "Cosa Nostra" let alone, "La Cosa Nostra". So already that argument is dead.
In Italy, it is simply mafia, they don't refer to each as, "he's n'drangheta", "he's cosa nostra", "he's cammorista", etc.
They would say "la mafia" if anything, but really, they don't go around saying these things. They're very tight lipped people in Italy.

I think made guys are mostly loyal to the "Family", not an individual in particular, unless they like the guy. But because of the structural hierarchy families are able to maintain order.



That has mostly to do with the "honor" those guys have. Getting 'revenge' plays an important part in a mobster's life.

That's just really stupid. I guess the FBI didn't have Italians in their ranks when they made this up. Apparantly they really didn't give a shit.

This is also perfectly depicted in an episode of The Sopranos when Tony and Paulie are visiting Italy. "Commendatori".

GREAT example, Sonny. The most telling scene in that episode, in my opinion, was when Paulie asked for "macaroni and gravy" during dinner with the Italian mob crew. It's clear to everyone at the table, except to himself, that Paulie is an American, through and through, whether he realizes this or not. It was also a riot when he was trying to communicate with the hooker in his bed .

Exactly.

Breaking it down like that is a phenomenon pretty much exclusive to American internet mob geeks .

Thats the point, why would they divide the family in 2 parts, Orena and Persico factions. So that makes them loyal to a person.

if you wanna classify calling her a [BadWord] communicating lol

And Italian and American law enforcement.

That is true. Even in Italian newspapers, they do break it down as such.

Researchers, such as Letizia Paoli as well.

Didn't know that. I was always under the impression that mob guys used it as a euphemism.

I was just trying to point out that the FBI's little acronym sounds dumb if you know anything about Romance languages.

Anyway, if a native speaker of Italian wanted to say "our thing" (no matter the context), he wouldn't say "la cosa nostra", right?

again, crea has calabrian origins and corozzo is from campania
no way there is even a single made man from north or central italy in the world mafia history
they all come from south italy (sicily, calabria, campania, apulia, basilicata)

Where'd you learn that Crea and Corozzo were southerners?

I think that's a bit of a stretch. I mean, in the entire history of the American mob?

For awhile there, they were making guys who were only half Italian. So you're telling me they'd rather make a guy who is half Southern Italian/half something else, as opposed to a full blooded guy whose great grandparents came from north of Rome?

At this point the bloodlines are so watered down anyway, I'm sure you could sneak a guy in, providing he's vouched for by the right guy. Look at the Donnie Brasco thing. That was over thirty years ago and they were going to make him. Yes, as it turns out, Pistone is Southern Italian. But he got away with telling them that he was an orphan, so there was really no way for them to verify it.

Now mind you, I'm speaking of the American mob. I''d be willing to bet that, over the years, at least one guy who's family came from north of Rome slipped through the cracks.

yes, sure they prefer making a guy half southern italian/half something else that a full bloodely guy who descent from north italy
it's a question of mentality, northern italians had a total different history than southerner
do you wonder because they never made even tony senter who was very though? it's easy, because his family came from north italy
joe pistone could be made because orphan, that's different

Maybe it's true...in Italy, the northerners sometimes look down on those from the south and tell them they are shameful...and the southerners always reply that 'you are not real Italians...you are Austro-Hungarians'...

Funny fact: Gotti is a northern Italian lastname. There are very few pockets in the Sounth but its originally a Brescia\Bergamo lastname.

Well as Dennis Hopper was kind enough to point out in the movie True Romance to Christopher Walkens character, most italians were blonde with blue eyes. Whether he was right i really have no idea but who am i to argue with Dennis Hopper.

"So you see, way back then, uh, Sicilians were like, uh, wops from Northern Italy. Ah, they all had blonde hair and blue eyes, but, uh, well, then the Moors moved in there, and uh, well, they changed the whole country. They did so much fuckin' with Sicilian women, huh? That they changed the whole bloodline forever. That's why blonde hair and blue eyes became black hair and dark skin. You know, it's absolutely amazing to me to think that to this day, hundreds of years later, that, uh, that Sicilians still carry that ni**er gene. Now this..."

sicilians never were blond, greeks arrived long before arabs (not blacks) they were dark when arabs arrived the only few sicilian blond have normans origins

It's true. There are many many Sicilians that are light hair with blue or green eyes.

Great quote, there, Leroy..or is that Mr. Jones?

edit: m2w, are you saying Sicilians (in Sicily) are not blonde with blue eyes? Seriously?

love that scene.

But no, the difference btw North and South has been so overhyped. Both areas have mixed blood.
Cities like Genoa or Venice where kinda like ancient NYC, they were a real melting pot of folks coming from all over the place. This is clear after studying Italian dialects...most have french\spanish roots.

Some words sound the same and have similar meaning:

Gna' in Eastern Sicily means "girl" and there is a very similar way to say it in Brescia: gnara. Also gnaro (guy), gnari (guys) and gnare (girls).
Fidec' means liver... both in Neapolitan and Bergamo\Brescian.
Portùgal (or Portuall') means orange...both in Naples and in Brescia\Bergamo.
Some people say that comes from the Greek word "portukalia", others say that the Spanish used to call oranges like that because thay used to import them from Portugal.

Anyway it is...it's remarkable.

You can find a blonde Sicilian as easly as you can find an olive-skin dark Northern.

Funny how people keep this stereotype alive.

All bets are off only in Alto Adige, where like 97% of the population is Austrian.

Actually it was Dennis Hoppers character that said it. I had to edit the post cause i remembered i had the two characters mixed up.

Loved Gary Oldman in that movie too.

And regarding Sicilians being part black, that's false. Arabic, definitely. Greek, definitely. There is nowhere near enough DNA in Sicilians to consider them having a black gene.

And if anyone is that curious, I'd refrain from asking a Sicilian if he's black.